List of African American jurists
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This list includes individuals self-identified as African Americans who have made prominent contributions to the field of law in the United States, especially as eminent judges or legal scholars. Individuals who may have obtained law degrees or practiced law, but whose reasons for notability are not closely related to that profession, are generally not listed here.
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| Name | Years | Comments | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dennis Archer | (1942 - present) | First African American president of the American Bar Association, former mayor of Detroit. | [1] |
| Derrick Bell | (1930 - present) | Proponent of Critical race theory and Law Professor at Harvard University. | [2] |
| Julian Bond | (1940 - present) | Founder of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, founder of Southern Poverty Law Center, chairman of NAACP. | [3] |
| Janice Rogers Brown | (1949 - present) | Federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. | [4] |
| Johnnie Cochran | (1937 - 2005) | Prominent defense attorney. | [5] |
| Tom Colbert | (1949 - present) | First African-American Justice on the Oklahoma Supreme Court. | |
| Christopher Darden | (1956 - present) | Associate District Attorney of Los Angeles who gained fame as a prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial. | [6] |
| Marian Wright Edelman | (1939 - present) | Founder of the Children's Defense Fund. | [7] |
| Lani Guinier | (1950 - present) | Voting rights scholar and first African American woman tenured by Harvard Law School. | [8] |
| A. Leon Higginbotham | (1928 - 1998) | Circuit judge, law professor, author, and international mediator in first South African non-racial elections. | [9] |
| Jerome A. Holmes | (1961 - present) | First African American judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. | [10] |
| Barbara Jordan | (1936 - 1996) | First African American Congresswoman from a southern state, while on House Judiciary Committee was influential in impeachment of Richard Nixon. | [11] |
| Thurgood Marshall | (1908 - 1993) | NAACP Legal Defense Fund founder and Supreme Court of the United States Associate Justice. | [12] |
| Wade H. McCree | (1920 - 1987) | Second African American (following Thurgood Marshall) to serve as Solicitor General of the United States. | |
| Constance Baker Motley | (1921 - 2005) | Wrote the original complaint in the case of Brown v. Board of Education; first African American female Federal Court judge. | |
| Barack Obama | (1961 - present) | University of Chicago Law Professor and United States Senator. | |
| Alan Page | (1945 - present) | Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice. | |
| Vel Phillips | (1924 - present) | First African-American woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison law school, first African-American AND first woman on the Milwaukee Common Council, first African-American judge in Wisconsin, first woman judge in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, first non-white statewide elected official in Wisconsin, first non-white on a major party's national committee. | |
| Judith Ann Wilson Rogers | (1939 - present) | First African-American female on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. | |
| Leah Ward Sears | (1955 - present) | Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, and only African-American female Chief Justice in the United States. When appointed, youngest person to have sat on the Georgia Supreme Court. | |
| Clarence Thomas | (1948 - present) | Supreme Court of the United States Associate Justice. | |
| James Lopez Watson | (1922 - 2001) | First post-Reconstruction African American Federal judge. | |
| Patricia J. Williams | (1951 - present) | Proponent of Critical race theory and Law Professor at Columbia University. | [13] |
[edit] References
- ^ Dennis Archer Becomes First African American President-Elect of the American Bar Association[1]
- ^ Derrick Bell: The Art and Dynamics of Protest[2]
- ^ NAACP page on Chairman Julian Bond[3]
- ^ PBS NOW: Janice Rogers Brown's Record[4]
- ^ CNN obituary of Cochran[5]
- ^ UMKC Biography of Christopher Darden[6]
- ^ Women's History Profile of Marian Wright Edelman[7]
- ^ Harvard University biography of Lani Guinier[8]
- ^ Howard University biography of A. Leon Higginbotham[9]
- ^ *"Holmes' nomination confirmed," Tulsa World, July 27, 2006[10]
- ^ United States Congress biography of Barbara Jordan[11]
- ^ George Mason University biography of Thurgood Marshall[12]
- ^ Commencement speech by Patricia Williams[13]
[edit] See also
- List of Jewish jurists
